Proposal:

[pudley4]

Anyone who brings up the [censored] retarded FIFA rankings when trying to support an argument for a soccer team will be autobanned.

[X] Signed.

[wisehandpoker]

If you're suggesting the US is anything but the fifth best team on the planet, you are sadly mistaken sir.

[Bukem_]

Don't worry, after the world cup is over I'm sure everything will align correctly and we will be around 7th-8th like we deserve.

[MyTurn2Raise]

I agree with the OP [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]

anyone who thought the US was #5, does not watch much professional soccer outside of the MLS.

[pokerspite]

[ QUOTE ]
I agree with the OP [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]

anyone who thought the US was #5, does not watch much professional soccer outside of the MLS.

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree. Cleary too low.

[pokerspite]

[ QUOTE ]
I agree with the OP [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]

anyone who thought the US was #5, does not watch much professional soccer outside of the MLS.

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree. Clearly too low.

[Kneel B4 Zod]

[ QUOTE ]
Anyone who brings up the [censored] retarded FIFA rankings when trying to support an argument for a soccer team will be autobanned.

[X] Signed.

[/ QUOTE ]

what's even worse than posters here doing it is legitimate US journalists citing it.

just today I read about the world #2 Czech team losing

[MCS]

[ QUOTE ]
what's even worse than posters here doing it is legitimate US journalists citing it.

[/ QUOTE ]

I blame FIFA for having a stupid system more than I blame the journalists.

Also, I suspect that anyone who thought the U.S. was #5 doesn't watch ANY pro soccer. I would think most MLS fans are more knowledgable than that.

[BigBlind]

The interesting part is that the womens ranking is calculated different than the male ranking. WHY????. Womens ranking is based on a system similare to chess. A more balanced ranking.

I believe the male ranking is different because of The World Cup 1994 in USA. FIFA started the ranking 1993, the year before the US-based World Cup

How to make US interested for the World Cup?. Well, make a ranking. How does this help? US folks love rankings and statistics. Still no good since USA isn't one of the top teams in the world. Well make the USA ranked high then. How to make this?. Just tweak the system. And so we got a flawed ranking. And they never changed it back after the 1994 World Cup because FIFA has this stupid illusion of soccer actually getting popular in the US down the road.

They didn't need to tweak it for the women. WHY?. USA women team was the best team in the world anyhow. This is how FIFA uses 2 different ranking synsems for no apparent reason. If you want to look how the male ranking would look using the more balanced chessranking system (and similar to the one FIFA uses for women soccer) you can see it here http://www.eloratings.net/

[PokerFink]

[ QUOTE ]
www.eloratings.net

[/ QUOTE ]

At a quick glance, those seem about right.